Maths Times Infinity > History > Euler
Leonhard Euler
{15/4/1707 - 18/9/1783}
The most prolific mathematician of all time.
Euler became blind in one eye and eventually both eyes in his older days. Part of the cause was the conditions he tended to work under. He would get excited about a problem and work on it for days without getting much sleep, doing much of his work at night with poor lighting.
Euler proved the identity $\frac{1}{1^2}+\frac{1}{2^2} + \frac{1}{3^2} + \frac{1}{4^2}+\dots = \frac{\pi^2}{6}$.
Some fun facts:
- He fathered 13 children, although only 5 of them lived past childhood.
- He was Swiss.
- He found the limits of some non-convergent series which Ramanujan also did later.